Comic-Con 2011: Capone takes a turn walking the Show Floor on Preview Night!!!

Capone in Chicago here. Actually, that's not accurate because for the rest of the week, I'm here at Geek Central in San Diego for Comic-Con 2011. Now usually, Quint and Kraken troll the exhibition hall on Preview Night, looking for new collectables that are either show exclusives or previews of fun stuff coming out in 2012.

But Quint's flight was severely delayed getting into San Diego tonight, so he missed Preview Night, and I was charged with the task of walking the fairly manageable Show Floor looking for fun stuff on display from the different collectables groups, movie studios, toy makers, you name it. Kraken was by my side (actually, he was leading the way), along with my Comic-Con photographer, Malone (look up the character names in THE UNTOUCHABLES; you'll get it), plowing through the crowds to get a few fun shots for you.

We all met up at the Sideshow Collectibles booth, and this is what we saw:

In all the years I've been doing this job, I've never actually seen or met Stan Lee. I wasn't on the Show Floor five minutes, and there he was signing autographs with Morgan Spurlock (who is putting the finishing touches on his documentary about Comic-Con). The book they were signing appearing to be a published version of the History of Comic-Con, perhaps tied in with the film. Whatever the reason, good way to start the Con.

And here's some new items from Sideshow Collectibles:

And yes, that is a figure taken from the video game Dead Space.

Over at the Marvel booth, we have a mysterious set up that looked suspiciously like the deck of the SHIELD Helicarrie,r with agents occasionally stepping behind the consoles to work. As you can see, the Avengers logo tops the display, and I'm guessing at some point in the next couple of days, this will all open up to reveal some secrets not yet on display.

On the the Sony Pictures booth, where THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE, MEN IN BLACK 3, and even THE SMURFS were being promoted.

Last year's "The Walking Dead" booth was pretty spectacular, so this year's could only be topped by a display in which you can be handcuffed to everyone's favorite racist, Merle (a eerily life-like version of Micahel Rooker) as zombies threaten to come crashing through on this recreation of the rooftop stand-off from the first season.

The Lionsgate booth featured a couple of nice art work, including the great poster for THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE, which I just saw right after Preview Night, as well as the upcoming THE HUNGER GAMES.

NECA was offering a few choice exclusives on the floor. I didn't see it, but I'm dying to know what collectible was designed for THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS. The focus seemed to be GREMLINS-related merch, including a GREMLINS video game for the kids.

Tomorrow begins the real work for me. Interviews, panels, press conferences, screenings, and maybe a party or two. More Comic-Con coverage from all of us.

You'd think that, given those items on display, but there's this Avengers teaser poster that suggests otherwise:
http://assets.flickchart.com/blogassets/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/avengers-teaser-poster.jpg
Also, Jeremy Renner did an interview where he said that there's no purple or mask in the costume. Too bad, really; Hawkeye's costume is singular & iconic.

Hi Capone,
Just wanted to thank you for stopping by the Lionsgate booth - I work with the agency that built the TouchWall, so anything that helps send people to the booth is great news for us! I hope you got to be there when a trailer rolled across all three screens.
If anyone who couldn't make it to the convention is curious, here's a writeup the TouchWall got on Mashable complete with video of throngs of fans using it - check it out!
http://mashable.com/2011/07/22/comicco-touchwall/
Thanks again,
James

Valid suggestion about the polarizing filter. Of course I have one, but I didn't know we'd be taking merchandise pics that morning.
Plus, I needed to maximize light transmission to capture action shots of booth babes.